


Nine Lives

by GalahadWilder



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 14:03:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12683385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: How many times can Ladybug watch Chat Noir die? And how many times can she keep bringing him back?





	Nine Lives

She doesn’t tell him.

She told him the first time, with Timebreaker, because that was different, it wasn’t him, and it wasn’t her - she wasn’t there to see it. But the next time Chat Noir dies in her arms, and the Cure brings him back, she says nothing. Because what can she say?

She’s lucky that he doesn’t remember what happened with Dark Cupid. She takes advantage of that, tells him that the Akuma was controlling him again, that he was unconscious until the Cure took effect. She doesn’t know why she lies to him. Seeing how gleefully, how readily, he throws himself in front of things that were meant for her, things that would’ve killed her, and…

It’s a grim calculation that goes on in her head. Because she knows that if she tells him, he’ll hesitate. And if he hesitates, she might die. She can bring him back. He can’t do the same for her.

And while she’d be okay with that, Paris still needs her.

So she watches, helpless, as her partner dives and dies again and again, and each time it rips her heart a little more, each time she wonders, _what if it doesn’t work this time? What if he doesn’t come back?_

She keeps count, in her mind. Every other myth about cats and ladybugs has proven true so far, so what happens if he gets to nine? Does he have a limit on the number of times she can bring him back? She resolves to tell him when he gets to seven.

Seven comes and goes, and she’s too scared to tell him. She doesn’t say anything at eight, either.

Nine, he catches a piece of living construction equipment to the face and gets thrown from the roof of a building. His neck cracks when he hits the ground.

It’s the suddenness of it that gets her. She’d thought she’d have more time, she’d thought she’d get to warn him, but she put it off, and now it was too late. He was dead, again, and this time he might not be coming back.

The Akuma fight doesn’t go well. Ladybug staggers back to where she saw him fall, exhausted and afraid, clutching the Lucky Charm to her chest. She almost doesn’t want to throw it. What if it doesn’t work?

She throws.

The ladybugs swarm over everything, putting the world back in its rightful place. They cover Chat Noir’s body as well, and then they’re gone. But he still isn’t moving, still isn’t breathing.

She covers her mouth with her hand. He can’t be. He _can’t_.

He isn’t.

He gasps, arching his back as he fills his lungs with air for the first time in two hours, and Ladybug is crying, sobbing, blubbering, gathering her partner in her arms and soaking her tears into his chest.

“My Lady?” he croaks. “Are you all right?”

“No,” she manages to gasp. “I can’t… I can’t lose you like that again.”

He doesn’t know what she means. All he can do is clutch her tight to his chest, and hope that’s enough.


End file.
